Revival

A Novel

"In a small New England town over half a century ago, a boy is playing with his new toy soldiers in the dirt in front of his house when a shadow falls over him. He looks up to see a striking man, the new minister, Jamie learns later, who with his beautiful wife, will transform the church and the town. The men and boys are a bit in love with Mrs. Jacobs; the women and girls, with the Reverend Jacobs--including Jamie's sisters and mother. Then tragedy strikes, and this charismatic preacher curses God, and is banished from the shocked town. Jamie has demons of his own. Wed to his guitar from age 13, he plays in bands across the country, running from his own family tragedies, losing one job after another when his addictions get the better of him. Decades later, sober and living a decent life, he and Reverend Charles Jacobs meet again in a pact beyond even the Devil's devising, and the many terrifying meanings of Revival are revealed. King imbues this spectacularly rich and dark novel with everything he knows about music, addiction, and religious fanaticism, and every nightmare we ever had about death. This is a masterpiece from King, in the great American tradition of Frank Norris, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe"--Provided by publisher.

One of the best books I have ever listened to. The description of the environment and of the characters was top notch, but the storytelling was even better. Before things took a twist, I could have listened to the life of the main character for years...it was so good. The end was surprising and very disturbing, but I knew what I was getting into with this author, similar to a M. Night Shamalan movie. Highly recommended!

King does coming of age/recovering addict better than any other author I've read. And that's what a good part of Revival is; or, rather, that's what THE good part is. The rest is maybe a short story's worth of plot wrapped around a play on words.

A fun update on the story of Dr. Frankenstein. It's one of my favourite classics, so I enjoyed Revival and was really glad King didn't soil the bed this time. His last few novels have been awful.

Sometimes I wanna write him off like Christian Bale writes off the lighting director in his famous rant: "You and me are *bleeping* done professionally." But then he releases something like this, or Just After Sunset and I remember why I love(d) him.

It was an interesting and original story-line, and very enjoyable up until the climax of the story where it seemed like Mr. King took what I only describe as a 60's type cheesy horror movie ending. Even after the pinnacle I liked the closing moments of the story.

Quotes

... he quoted Jung to me: “The world’s most brilliant confabulators are in asylums.”
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He talked about it in extravagant terms—secret of the universe, path to ultimate knowledge—but he had no more idea of what it really was than a toddler has of a gun he finds in Daddy’s closet.
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“Music matters,” he told me once. “Pop fiction goes away, TV shows go away, and I defy you to tell me what you saw at the movies two years ago. But music lasts, even pop music. Especially pop music. Sneer at ‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head’ if you want to, but people will still be listening to that silly piece of shit fifty years from now.”
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I think, no matter how far you’ve
gone from it or how long you’ve been in some other place. Home is where they want you to stay longer.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
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“Let us say plainly what Saint Paul meant when he spoke of that darkened glass. He meant we’re supposed to take it all on faith. If our faith is strong, we’ll go to heaven, and we’ll understand the whole thing when we get there. As if life were a joke, and heaven the place where the cosmic punchline is finally explained to us.
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“Revelation, chapter one, verse eight. ‘I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.’ ..."